Final Words

Ok, I hope everyone is ready for the draft this Sunday. 3 days till the big show. Reminder, the draft is Sunday, March 28th at 8PM (CENTRAL STANDARD TIME).

So far I have only received a check from Jimmy's Daddy and The SwinGERS, so get those checks in fellas.

We'll use this as a draft day open thread. The Ger has the first pick of the draft, followed by yours truly and Mr. 3000. Should be an interesting, strategic draft. Looking forward to it.

Markakisgate

Ok guys, I just realized something and have immediately moved to correct it. For some reason, I treated Nick Markakis as a waiver wire pickup, thus, keeping him as my 5th round waiver wire pick. Upon further investigation, I realized that Nick Markakis was in fact, a trade pickup from The SwinGERS (thus making him ineligible for 5th round keeper status).

He has been removed from the Roscoe Village Hot Dogs and returned to the eligible draftee player pool (and will be available come draft day).

Please know this was not intentional, and as soon as I learned of the mistake, I moved to correct it. As a result, I have added my team to the 5th round of the draft, and the spreadsheet has been updated. Since I sent the spreadsheet out AFTER I realized my mistake, I'll send an updated one sometime this weekend.

If anyone has any questions or concerns, please let me know. Thank you for your understanding.

9 Days Til Draft

We're rapidly approaching draft day, everyone. As a reminder, the draft will take place on Sunday, March 28th at 9PM, Eastern Standard Time.

Please send your entry checks to me at the address I gave you in the e-mail that was just sent out.

Draft Date

Ok, let's put this to bed once and for all. Currently, the draft is scheduled for Wednesday, March 24th at 7PM CST. A number of people have said they prefer Sunday evening so I want to throw out Sunday, March 28th at 8PM CST as a potential draft date/time. Let me know in the comments section.

Mr. Hackman, I received your email and the latest spreadsheet that was sent out on Friday should reflect the change (two 5th round Cobras picks).

This is a great commercial, btw. Love Verlander's comment at the end.

New Draft Issue

I was just looking at the draft, and I've gotta be honest with you, the lower ranked teams are at a total disadvantage. In my opinion, the snake draft is the obvious example. But we voted and it was the will of the league (or the rules, anyway) to keep it as is. The scenario after Round 5 is further proof of the inequity here. Take my draft spot for instance.

Having the 2nd worst finish in the league, I have the #2 overall pick. With that, here are my first 4 picks.

2
23
26
47

Now, based on "snake rules", I should have a pick shortly after my 4th round pick (pick 47). But since the 5th round is for teams that didn't keep a player, I am excluded from picking in that round (which is fine). However, in round 6, I have to wait till the end of the round before making another pick (thus, giving me pick 64). So let's recap here-

After my 3rd round pick (pick 26), because of the flawed snake draft, I have to wait 21 picks before my next pick (pick 47). Now, instead of getting a pick shortly thereafter, I have to wait an astounding 17 picks before making my next selection (pick 64).

Wouldn't it be fair to start round 6 with the lower seeded teams? One might argue that that wouldn't be fair for the higher ranked teams, who would have to wait just as long. My argument to that would be that the point of the draft order is to help the lower seeded teams gain parity (which is already questionable in the fact that the higher seeded teams get a lions share of the top rated players in an already thin draft pool.

I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on this, in my opinion, the draft (as it currently stands) is designed to keep the top rated teams on top and continues to put lower ranked teams as a disadvantage.

New Issue Monday

Check out this video, it's amazing. If this doesn't put tears in your eyes, you're crazy (or not a Yankee fan). My favorite part are two Mattingly homers (around 5:00 in). There are few players out there with a better swing than Donnie.

Yankee Mike brought up an issue that I promised I would open up for discussion. Whether it leads to a change of some kind, I don't know. But I thought it would be productive to hash it out and get everyone's input. From Yankee Mike-

My idea is that if you trade a multi year contract away and you receive less in return, you should assume that value just as you do if you receive a larger value in return. (applying towards next year)

My idea is when I traded a 2 year player for a 1 year player, I thought that extra year would come off my books for next year, freeing up the credit I lost when dropping a 2 year player in a separate transaction. I made a decision to make this trade based on next year, clearing knowing my team was not going to win it all. If we are dealing with a cap of 50 credits and trades can impact that for the following years, I think it should go both ways with assuming a contract.

I am relating this to a salary cap. I do agree there should be a penalty for dropping multi year contracts, but if you can wisely pull of a trade ridding yourself of a multi year contract, then that should balance into the credits as well.

If the team assumes a contract, then two teams should not be "paying" for the same player in the following year.

Make sense?